Februar

Excavations in
Hedeby’s Flat-Grave Burial Ground –

A Preliminary
Report

by Sven Kalmring

In April to October
2017 a larger section of Hedeby’s Flat-Grave Burial Ground (Flachgräberfeld; Busdorf, Kreis
Schleswig-Flensburg; LA No. 31-3; excavation ALSH 2017-32) was subject to an
archaeological investigation. For the successful implementation of the project
the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology cooperated with partners at
the Archäologisches Landesamt
Schleswig-Holstein, the Archäologisches
Landesmuseum and the Wikinger Museum
Haithabu. Next to a small core-excavation team the project was supported by
an international crew of experienced interns from Kiel- and Aarhus University, as
well as other German universities and even students from Belgium, France and
England. The declared aim of this research-excavation was to relocate the exact
position of an earlier, unfinished excavation trench from the eve of World War
II, an enhancement of a larger section immediately around it for a modern, state-of-the-art
investigation of the burial ground including aDNA-extraction, and finally a
monitoring of the present-day preservation conditions for human remains. For
the first time in Hedeby’s history of research the excavation-tent also was
made accessible for visitors including a small poster-exhibition about the site
as such, prevailing burial customs and targeted old excavation as well as aims
for the current survey. This publicity was greatly appreciated by the general
audience and during the six month of fieldwork c. 80,000 visitors found their way to the excavation (fig. 1).

The old, unfinished
excavation aimed for had been conducted in between August 9th to
September 2nd 1939 under the lead of the Finnish archaeologist
Helmer Salmo, who just had finished his doctoral thesis on »Die Waffen der Merowingerzeit in
Finland (Helsinki 1938)«. Until the start of the current survey in 2017 it was the last to be
conducted on this particular burial ground. Already in 1938 Salmo, Holger
Arbman from Sweden and Roar Skovand from Denmark were won by Herbert Jankuhn
and the Ahnenerbe to execute minor
surveys at the hillfort Hochburg respectively at the so-called Königshügel.
However, while Arbman and Skovmand subsequent to their surveys left head over
heels, Salmo stayed even in 1939 and only then was allowed to excavated inside
the ramparts itself – “in order to get to know the on-site developed methods“ (extract
from the excavation report) by surveying a small section of the Flat-Grave
Burial Ground. On August 25th Salmo and his wife left the German
Reich hastily and already under great difficulties. Ultimately due to the
invasion of Poland and the start of World War II on September 1st 1939 the excavation was aborted and the trench backfilled under, as witnessed
in a letter from Haseloff to H. Jankuhn penned 1939-08-28, quite dramatic
circumstances. The original examined trench measured 5 x 5 metres and was
enhanced by Günther Haseloff by another 1.5 m before it final abandonment.
While the drawn documentation of this efforts seem to be lost, photos, reports
and excavation diaries are comprised in the archive at Schloss Gottorf. Many
recognised features could only become registered, but no longer excavated. Instead,
in order to facilitate their later examination, they were marked out by
covering them with strips of roofing cardboard. Only two inhumation burials (without
coffins?) could become fully excavated; a preservations of bones already back
then was not given in this particular area. Burial 318 contained a golden
pendant with filigree ornamentation, to which the gemstone itself was missing.
Burial 319 featured an Anglo-Saxon sword of Petersen type L as a proper grave
good recovered in the enhancement of the trench (fig. 2). Among the remarkable stray finds there was
a globe-headed silver pin with filigree, an Irish gilded belt-buckle with chip
carving and a Byzantine solidus minted in AD 830/31-840, reworked as fibula
(cf. U. Arents & S. Eisenschmidt, Die Gräber von Haithabu. Die Ausgrabungen
in Haithabu 15 [Neumünster 2010]).

The current
excavations started off with a 12.5 x 12 m large trench roughly centring on the
1939-trench, covering the north-eastern half of the excavation tent. The area
was sub-divided into 1 x 1 metre grid squares; artefacts found on spot were
measured in three-dimensionally by tachymeter, while the excavated earth was
water-sieved and the containing small-finds recorded after grid square and
layer. The unveiled basic stratigraphy was relatively simple: The turf was
followed by a c. 30‒40 cm thick plow-layer excavated in
two cuts only. Each cut of the plow-horizon was first survey by metal-detector
and then removed by shovelling. Underneath the plow-horizon it was worked with
trowels exclusively. The underlying undisturbed “browning” or cultural layer of
another c. 20‒40 cm in thickness, excavated in 5
cm-cuts, was extremely homogenous and did neither permit the differentiation of
individual features nor the implementation of single-context recording. One of
the reasons for this hindered observation condition was due to a very heavy
bioturbation caused by resident moles and root voles. Since coffin nails
appeared in great numbers right in the plow-horizon – indicating very flat,
disturbed burials – already in the “browning” the edges of imperceptible
interments had to be expected. At this point a georadar-survey was conducted by
D. Wilken and the Institute of Geosciences at Kiel University on short notice. However,
this effort unfortunately did neither give early evidence on the location of
burials. During the ongoing excavation – and pretty much as in 1939 – only in
the natural ground the dug-in features were clearly visible as dark
discolorations against the yellow sand. These were submitted to single-context
recording during their further excavation. In some fortunate cases, however,
their prosecution above the natural ground became visible later on in the
profiles. In awareness of the observed procrastination of artefacts due to
bioturbation as a last step in the process even the sterile natural ground was
subjected to a final metal detecting survey.

The old excavation
trench, treated as feature 1 and emptied as a single context, became
immediately visible after removal of the plow horizon, almost enframed by the
natural sand as part of the backfill.

Its actual location
proved to deviate only some 20‒50 cm from the reconstructed position according to the local coordinates
within the Hedeby-coordinate system. The excavation started well: Only one week
into the new campaign the first gold bead was found immediately above the old
trench and three more should follow. Even more important, by the end of this
week two golden pendants with filigree, one with finely cut rock crystal, the
other with an amethyst, were retrieved from the backfill where they were
overlooked some 80 years before. Amazingly these, together with the golden
beads, can be assigned to grave 318, too, with the earlier recorded golden
pendant and the missing gemstone. The therewith complete necklace today certainly
turns burial 318 into one of the most outstanding female interments from late
Hedeby (fig. 3).

As
luck would have it just the year before very close parallels were found in context
of the discovery of the Fæsted hoard some 12 km west of Ribe in Denmark. It was
even suggested, that the rock crystal pendants from Fæsted and Hedeby might actually
have been produced in one and the same workshop (cf. L. Grundvad & M.
Kundsen, Fæstedskatten – dynamisk guldsmedekunst i 900-årenes Danmark. By,
marsk og geest 29, 2017, 30–49). When reaching the bottom of the 1939-trench in
eight cases the brittle remnants of doormat-sized roofing cardboards could
become recorded. These also allowed to relocate the exact positions of the
already excavated burials 318 and 319 with otherwise missing drawings; for the
latter even the spared pedestal to the sword – as pictured in one of the old photographs
(!) – was identifiable.

All-in-all 69 features
were recorded during the excavations. While a detailed analysis has to be reserved
for future studies, it can be pointed out that, as expected, most of the
features were about ENE-WSW orientated graves with nailed coffins and without
grave goods. The overwhelming majority, however, did not feature preserved
human bones. Even if this might have been critically red out of the excavation
report from 1939 itself, the documentation of the main trench of the Flat-Grave
Burial Ground excavated between 1900 and 1912 in contrast and very differently
featured very well preserved skeletal remains in only some 15 metres distance. Seeing
the original intention of extracting aDNA samples in order to learn more about
the provenance and composition of the population in late Hedeby, this
constituted a dilemma. It was attempted to compensate this circumstance methodologically
by a consequent soil sampling at the bottom of the grave-pits in hope to catch some
putrid juice suitable for aDNA-analysis. Here, 23 sets of test specimens have
been taken under sterile conditions in the field. Also from three of the main
profiles soil samples were taken for further soil-chemical analysis in order to
follow up the question for the prevailing erratic preservation conditions.
Towards the latter part of the campaign and parallel to the last works in the
main trench in August 18th a minor supplementary trench of 3 x 5
metres was opened at the far side of the excavation tent. Here, in the southern
corner of it, the intention was to capture the limits of the main excavation
area from 1900-1912 and to screen, if the preservation conditions for human
remains were still accordant to the state as recorded at the beginning of the
last century or had turned equally bad since then. While the first target could
not become archived the preservation conditions only 10.50 metres from the main
trench effectively proved to be far better with both preserved skulls and long
bones (fig. 4).

The encountered
artefact-spectrum was vast and the finds still being sorted almost reach as
many as 12,000 entities. The vast majority of the finds were about coffin nails,
sometimes even with remnants of the coffin boards, which survived in the
corrosion product. Yet even other objects hid among the corroded iron
artefacts, such as e.g. coffin fittings, knifes – in one case corroded onto a
whetstone! – one flick knife, scissors, a key, parts of padlocks or a crampon.
To the mass material certainly also belonged potsherds, local and Pingsdorf
ware, as well as many beads of precious metal, glass, carnelian and rock
crystal and even amber. Here, chance finds of a few extremely small but pierced
micro-beads of less then 2 mm in size might in fact be the first evidence for
embroidery in Viking contexts. Single artefacts can only be highlighted
randomly and numbers might still change, but are able to give a first, general
idea on the general spectrum. Among the brooches there were two pairs of gilded
oval brooches (unrestored, probably P51) plus seven disc-brooches in silver,
gilded silver, with glass inlay and in gold. Above that there was a
rhomb-shaped brooch in Borre style, one arm of a trefoil brooch as well as
coiled springs of fibulas. Amongst the group of pendants a small Thor’s hammer
from lead, two silver- and two amber-pendants can be mentioned. Other pieces of
personal equipment encountered were three fragments of ring-pins, a belt
buckle, several rare hooked tags for puttees, a decorative silver fitting of
the Bootkammergrab-type and finally even
a Rus’ bronze button. In just one single case a piece of preserved tablet
weaving was met. Rather about settlement finds were the bead-makers’ bone pin
with glass drip, a stone “anvil” for pre-heating glass as well as a set of
three beads fused during cooling. Apart from that there was only one small
fragment of a decorated comb side-plate, half of a conical spindle whorl and
each one piece of schist and jet as unprocessed raw material. Several coins and
pieces of hack silver, among them some Hedeby KG 9b’s dated to c. AD 976, an arm of a folding scale and
two cubo-octahedral
weights complete the set.

In accordance to
earlier studies the burials in this part of the Flat-Grave Burial Ground chiefly
seem belong to the 10th century AD or later. One of the youngest
finds is the hack silver-fragment of a short-cross penny of Edward the
Confessor minted in AD 1044-46. It is this penultimate Anglo-Saxon king whose
death triggered the events depicted on the Bayeux tapestry, ending with the
battle of Hastings in AD 1066, which also happens to be the historical date for
Hedeby’s demise. Even though only very few finds of personal equipment can actually
be allotted to individual burials, as e.g. in several cases tiny threads of
gold passementerie, one pair of oval brooches, the 10th century
belt-fitting type Hedeby variant 2 or the bronze hilt of a knive, there seems
to be a clear Christian impact – not only indicated by the general orientation
of the burials and the absence of true grave goods in contrast to personal
equipment. As earlier known from the burials 226 and 236 from 1911, another
cross-shaped coffin fitting was found (fig. 5), thereto a looped and hallmarked silver
arm of a cross pendent and, for the first time in Hedeby, two very fine shroud
pins from bronze. In one case even charcoal-patches could be observed in a
burial-context, which elsewhere had been suggested to be connected to the
veneration of Saint Lawrence. This saint became devoted by Emperor Otto after
his victory against the Magyars in the battle of Lechfeld on August 10th 955, the very day of the festivity of the saint; in AD
962 Otto even received one bar of the grate the Saint Lawrence suffered his
martyrdom on from Pope John XII. Very close parallels to the pattern starting
to emerge in Hedeby seem to be found not at sites as e.g. Birka, but in its
putative Christian successor Sigtuna (cf. A. Wikström (red.), På väg mot
paradiset. Arkeologisk undersökning i kvarteret Humlegården 3 i Sigtuna 2006
(Sigtuna 2008)). The many gold- and gilded finds certainly point to a wealthy
merchant population in 10th century Hedeby.

Apart from the
cemetery itself two other, older and largely unknown phases could also be
reviled by the excavation: A settlement phase with a few refuse pits plus a disturbed
bead maker-workshop, cut by a later burial, was found and predominately recorded
at the north-eastern margins of the main trench. This phase seems to go well
together with a large amount of production waste scattered over the whole of
the excavated area. Furthermore, there are good indications for a (pagan) mound
of eight metres in diameter, which mostly becomes apparent in the geomagnetic
from 2002, but also is indicated by a more or less featureless empty space as
well as the very restricted remains of what might have been a stone circle
surrounding it. If so, we yet have to consider that the principal burial
against all hope was gone. Again based on geomagnetics another mound of nine
metres in diameter seem to have existed in the south-western part of the tent
which was reserved for exhibition and visitors. It seems not by coincidence
that just here, with the female interment grave 45, the only known
chamber-grave of the Flat-Grave Burial Ground was recorded in 1905. Thus it
appears that the feasibly in its latest phase Christian cemetery rather organically
developed from a heathen barrow cemetery. In this context the results of the
geomagnetic surveys from 2002 should be systematically reviewed for further
circular anomalies pointing to the existence of additional mounds. The youngest
documented phase is about three square pits with straight walls and even
bottom, reaching below the cultural layer and deep into the natural ground. At
least one of these pits clearly cut through a burial, and they contained quite
some precious finds such as a pair of oval brooches and another exquisite,
gilded globe-headed silver pin in Borre-style (fig. 6). These pits might very well be about unrecorded
trial pits as known to have been laid out in a dense grid all over the interior
of Hedeby at the beginning of the last century.

Two main questions
seem to be relevant to ponder further in the future: One is the apparent
antagonism between seemingly far too low-lying inhumations as witnessed by the
coffin nails appearing right underneath the grass turf and, at the same time, a
rather uncommonly thick plow horizon as a possible result of plowed-down mounds
and eroded settlement debris from higher reaches. The other question is rather
of universal nature for Hedeby in general and the Flat-Grave Burial Ground in
particular: If the preliminary interpretation of the latest phase of the burial
ground as proper Christian cemetery can be confirmed, one certainly has to ask
for the position of a corresponding church. Having said this, the latter does
not necessarily has to be identical with Saint Ansgar’s missionary church from AD
849/860, for which the Romanesque Saint Andrew’s church in Haddeby still seems
to be a strong candidate. What we are looking for is rather for an Ottonian church associated to the
Flat-Grave Burial Ground, maybe even connected to Hedeby-bishop Hored (AD 948)
and his successors. For such a task the highest elevation in all of Hedeby,
only some 30 metres apart, behind the hedge bank of the south-western adjacent
lot, seems to be a suitable candidate.